The customer data platform market size is expected to grow to $15.3B by 2026; that’s just the platform market. The value of the data that these platforms contain is worth much more; when this data is harness correctly, the value increases even more. Providing personalized experiences has become of paramount importance to brands in today’s demanding digital environment but managing the data intake, processing, and management process has become n tedious task for many, especially at scale. mParticle is a customer data infrastructure platform that allows businesses to manage the massive data opportunities available, through a single platform, allowing them to focus on delivering superior customer experiences rather than spending valuable internal resources managing data. Organizations can manage data from disparate sources, ensuring that data quality is preserved, privacy requirements are maintained, and the data is accessible to all facets of the organization. With a single API, teams can access customer data as well as sync data with 300+ marketing and analytics APIs. The data-infrastructure-as-a-service platform is trusted by organizations across a breadth of industries; clients include Klarna, NBCUniversal, Spotify, and Airbnb.
AlleyWatch caught up with mParticle CEO, Cofounder, and serial entrepreneur Michael Katz to learn more about how the digitization during COVID has changed customer behavior to make customer data solutions critical for brands, strategic plans, latest round of funding, which makes the total funding raised to $272M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We just raised $150M Series E led by Permira’s growth fund which backs leading tech-enabled and digital businesses. The existing investor base also participated in the round alongside new backers including former Adobe CFO Mark Garrett and New England Patriots All-Pro punter Jake Bailey.
Tell us about the product or service that mParticle offers.
mParticle is customer data infrastructure that helps teams accelerate their time to data value, for the purpose of creating better customer experience and business outcomes.
mParticle enables businesses to easily manage the immense growth of data volumes moving to and from sources, systems, API’s and applications. Using a single API, developers, product managers, and marketers can manage customer data along the entire product and customer lifecycle while also addressing challenges such as data quality and governance. Additionally, mParticle accelerates the time to value realization by facilitating real-time syncing of customer data to over 300 analytics and marketing APIs.
What inspired the start of mParticle?
My brother Andrew and I started mParticle back in 2013 after successfully exiting our last company, interclick, which was acquired by Yahoo in late 2011. At interclick, we built a data platform that was designed to unify data from multiple sources and create a unified customer view in order to drive better targeting and performance for our customers. At Yahoo, we saw the shift to mobile and the emergence of OTT but the data being created in those environments wasn’t easily accessible.
mParticle was a bet on this platform shift, and the emerging need for data capabilities to go beyond legacy web technologies and help brands keep pace with their customers across all devices and mediums. Based on our experience we saw an opportunity to create new solutions and unlock value for customers.
How is mParticle different?
We were built for this, and have built the company around this and this only. Unlike other CDPs, marketing clouds, and generic data pipelines, mParticle helps teams properly address the nuanced nature of customer data in an ever-changing technology ecosystem. As teams move beyond third-party cookies and create more durable, privacy-friendly strategies, they have the opportunity to create a data flywheel where better data leads to better personalization leading to more engagement and richer data. Addressing the underlying needs around data quality, governance and connectivity is the precursor to creating compounding effects through the organization that benefits the entire enterprise rather than a single team.
What market does mParticle target and how big is it?
What’s most exciting is that our opportunity is universal in nature. Any company that values its digital experience is going to have to tackle some foundational data challenges to successfully execute its digital strategy. These challenges center around data quality, governance, and connectivity.
mParticle works with some of the world’s largest brands and emerging industry leaders alike, including six of the top ten food and beverage brands, three of the largest financial services brands, two of the top travel and hospitality brands, four of the largest media and entertainment brands and the largest retailer in the US. Some of these brands include NBCUniversal, Giant Eagle, Route, Airbnb, Drybar, Dave and Buster’s.
What’s your business model?
SaaS subscription.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
Hybrid, flexible work.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
This time around it was just time. Not enough hours in the day to keep running the business and fundraising.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Acceleration of growth. Scale. Brand.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
All of our short-term targets center around hiring, revenue expansion, and product development.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
It really all depends on their circumstance so this is going to be very generic advice but it’s a competitive market out there. If you have the growth, the capital markets are there. If you don’t, it’s going to be tough.
If you have the growth, the capital markets are there. If you don’t, it’s going to be tough.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Our growth plans are to continue our position as the largest independent Customer Data Platform and expand access to our infrastructure to fuel the growth of consumer brands. This includes developing solutions to help brands improve data quality, scaling our global infrastructure to meet the needs of international privacy regulations, and building out key partnerships to help customers build better consumer experiences. We are hiring across our engineering, sales, and customer success teams to drive this innovation and scale the company.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Carbone.
